Serious question, why post something for discussion if it's behind a paywall?
Employee happiness and business success are linked
21–30 of 228 posts
Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked
#22They did look at causation: "the authors cite studies of changes within individual firms and organisations which seem to show that improvements in employee morale precede gains in productivity, rather than the other way round." Many of us understand the other causation arrow (corporate unsuccess leads to unhappiness!)
In some cases corporate unsuccess leeds to happiness. I've seen this in my case once. And hope that I'll not need to see this again.
Does it go something like: when the company tanks due to mismanagement > shareholder value suffers > employees feel vindicated?
Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked
#23They did look at causation: "the authors cite studies of changes within individual firms and organisations which seem to show that improvements in employee morale precede gains in productivity, rather than the other way round." Many of us understand the other causation arrow (corporate unsuccess leads to unhappiness!)
Isn't that still confounded by new management or shift in thinking at the top? You need an RCT to tease everything out.
Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked
#24Serious question, why post something for discussion if it's behind a paywall?
I'll bite because it's a reasonable question. I think linking to paywalled content is allowed because there are fairly easy ways around paywalls, but posting a roundabout directly goes (I believe) against HN policy.
An example of how to get around the Economist paywall is already elsewhere in this thread.
Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked
#25Serious question, why post something for discussion if it's behind a paywall?
Doesn't The Economist let you read four(?) articles a month without subscribing?
Anyways, here's the relevant excerpt from the HN FAQ
Are paywalls ok?
It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds.
In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to help other users do so. But please don't post complaints about paywalls. Those are off topic.
Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
In some cases corporate unsuccess leeds to happiness. I've seen this in my case once. And hope that I'll not need to see this again.
Does it go something like: when the company tanks due to mismanagement > shareholder value suffers > employees feel vindicated?
I've seen it in the form of an employee desiring a negative outcome for the business because that outcome is tied to vengeance for another employee's perceived professional mistake.
E.g., "I'm not going to help that team because they need to feel the pain of the decision I didn't like."
Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked
#27Amazon seems to be doing alright regardless.
And the entire gaming industry.
Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know a lot of engineers that work for Amazon that are happy. Warehouse workers on the other hand...
Warehouse work sucks. Amazon's warehouse work is above average for warehouse work.
By what metric? I have friends that have been working warehouses in Ohio since the early 2000s and they have vented frustrations to me about how Amazon is causing a race to the bottom for warehouse labor.
I've heard a lot of horror stories about Amazon warehouses. I'm sure a lot of it is FUD or whatever, but it seems that even Walmart has better conditions.
Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked
#29I've seen these arguments repeatedly, yet I only see this mattering to those companies where employees have a relative level of power and choice (e.g. non-game industry programmers, etc). Elsewhere, the attitude appears to have remained: "use them as much as possible". Consider assistant managers at your local chain store. Pick a chain! Outside of a handful of companies that are well noted for their bucking of the trend, regardless of market, these employees will be used and abused, year after year. If my anecdotal experience is representative, the more they actually care about the job, the more they'll be abused. Managers get the same, and by the time you get to district or regional managers, they are mostly the people that survived the lower levels...where "survived" means "did the abusing" not "got burnt out and quit for greener pastures".
Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked
#30They did look at causation: "the authors cite studies of changes within individual firms and organisations which seem to show that improvements in employee morale precede gains in productivity, rather than the other way round." Many of us understand the other causation arrow (corporate unsuccess leads to unhappiness!)
Seems obvious for anybody that's had a job. I'm more self-motivated than the average person. I'll go above and beyond on tasks and take pride in my work, which benefits the company. But if I work in a shitty workplace, even my work ethic and quality will drop and I might even start doing less than is required.